Entre la "guerra justa" y "una inútil masacre": Benedicto XV, el papa desconocido

Abstract

Is there the possibility of two different ethico-theological positions in the same Christian believer about the lawfulness or the unfairness of war? In the centenary of the end of World War I, to recall a key figure for the Catholic Roman Church in that moment, arises Giacomo Della Chiesa's dilemma facing the war as Archbishop of Italian Bologna, regarding the Libian campaign (1911-1912) and afterwards as pope Benedict XV regarding the Great War (1914-1919). Research proceeds with a hermeneutics of his documents and of his contemporary chroniclers in one and other venue, also going to historians of his performance in both tasks. Conclusion reveals the scope that the matter had for the pastoral exercise of an almost unknown believer; furthermore, it suggests some lines in studying the problem that war continues to pose to the discourse of Theology when it is qualified as just.